A Powder Blue Sport Coat

This began as I was completing the "About Me" portion of "My Profile" and rapidly exceed the allotted 1200 characters. So "who are you"? to steal a lyric from the band The Who and why is a 60 year old, white male, living midtown Tulsa writing a blog? Answer - a passion and love of this City.

I am a lifelong Tulsan, I am an architect/planner by training and that has evolved into my passion. Thinking back, I remember my Mom worked for Don Osgood, City Planner for Tulsa in the early 1960s and me, a skinny young kid with a crew cut haircut, would go with her when she worked late or on weekends at the planning office. During those visits I would thumb through the multitude of plans, drawings and documents with great curiosity that someone could actually plan a city. It must have been those times that instilled this passion for city planning in my soul. I also remember Don coming to dinner at our home on a few occasions. Maybe I should have listened closer to those stories related to dealing with City government, although those were the days of a commission style of government and that worked remarkably well for the efficient running of government operations. It may not have been equitable across all areas of our city, but it worked.

The passion began in high school with drafting classes at Central High School, directed by George Reeves,  and raised to new heights when I went to Oklahoma State University in the Architecture program from 1968 to 1973.  I think a great deal of my early urban thinking was formed by the philosophy and sociology classes I took. In the early 1980s, I got a new dose of passion for city planning when I enrolled in the Urban Studies masters program at the University of Tulsa headed by Dr. Earl Reeves.(I did not realize until writing this how people named Reeves family played such an important role in my life).  I could not get enough of classes, studying or spending time at the library or Urban Studies house on campus. I was so disappointed when they dropped the program and hope that someday it might be brought back. In addition to Dr. Reeves, I truly enjoyed my Urban Sociology class with Dr. Jean Blocker, my Real Estate class with Dr. Larry Wofford, both of whom are still at the University. By far though the class most remembered was Dr. Reeves' Community Organization class where Anthony Downs' "Inside Bureaucracy" and Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" were the required reading.

As a staff planner at the City of Tulsa, I did the primary research and writing of the Historic Preservation Ordinance and was part of the planning team that created the Downtown Plan for Tulsa in the late 1980s.
I have had the profound honor and opportunity to be a principal in the A/E firm Matrix, that has been the design firm or part of a design team for some of the most significant projects over the past ten years. The master plan and re-design of Expo Square, the renovation of the Fairgrounds Pavilion, the BOK Center, the Convention Center expansion, City Hall move to the One Technology Center and many more.

Growing up here and going to the state fair, concerts at the original Convention Center - I must have attended every Beach Boy concert that came to town, experienced the truly great James Brown Cape routine, and in June of 1970 I went to the Jimi Hendrix concert. I wore a light blue sport coat, dark grey slacks and all evening I wondered where the grass fire was. Life really change after that night. Upon returning from college,  the new City Hall/Civic Center was being built and now having been a part of the move of City Hall, the Convention Center expansion and the BOK Center, and total renovation of the fairgrounds that skinny kid with a crew cut has lived the dream. Now I am going to go do something new - write, advocate and be an activist for a new vision of Tulsa. My beautiful loving wife tells me I'm also going to make some money, so if you need a planner/architect, you can contact me at 918.606.2029 or email be at urbaininquiry.birkes@gmail.com. I love this City.

PLANiTULSA and Great Resets

I recently read Richard Florida's new book, "The Great Reset". In the book he writes about the major historical "resets," in particular, the great depressions of 1870s and 1930s that dramatically transformed the urban, economic and social environments of those periods.  He referenced how we might be poised for another "reset" today given current economic conditions. It was interesting reading the comparison of our present economic crisis to the one that began in 1873. That crisis centered around "a banking crisis brought on by insolvent mortgages, complex financial instruments and led to widespread long term unemployment". The major point of the book is Florida's discussion about the great innovation that occurred at that time and the major changes to city form that follow these economic downturns and how we may be at the beginning of such a positive period of arts, architecture and overall creativity.

I also read a blog or post - Edge Perspectives by John Hagel, and he too has read Richard Florida's book and has highlighted what I think are some key excerpts that bring out the essence of Florida's book and might be interesting things to contemplate as they relate to Tulsa's future and the next efforts of PlaniTulsa. (I encourage you to go to the Edge Perspective by John Hagel and read the entire post. http://www.edgeperspectives.typepad.com/)

Edge Perspectives by John Hagel, June 14, 2010

As Richard explains it:

"A true Reset transforms into simply the way we innovate and produce, but also ushers in a whole new economic landscape.  As it takes shape around new infrastructure and systems of transportation, it gives rise to new housing patterns, realigning where and how we live and work.  Eventually it ushers in a whole new way of life . . ". 

He goes on to emphasize that:

"Economic systems do not exist in the abstract; they are embedded within the geographic fabric of the society – the way land is used, the locations of homes and businesses, the infrastructure that ties people, places and commerce together . . . . A reconfiguration of this economic landscape is the real distinguishing characteristic of a Great Reset."

From a planning point of view, Florida references the work of David Harvey, a geographer and social theorist and his work that relates to these major resets containing a "spatial fix". Now that Tulsa has a new Comprehensive Plan, the next effort is to begin implementing and making the necessary changes to our development documents that will begin to make these "spatial fixes" possible. In addition to the Comprehensive Plan, a Strategic Vision was also prepared and sets forth the following key initiatives that now need to be addressed.

1. Revise the Zoning Code

2. Conduct Neighborhood and Small Area Planning in Targeted Areas

3. Create and Launch a Redevelopment Strategy

4. Develop PLANiTULSA Building Prototypes as Demonstration Projects

5. Draft and Launch a New Transportation Strategy

6. Organize Planning and Development Functions for Implementation  

Approval of the Comprehensive Plan is just the beginning, we need to take the next steps to  implement the above listed initiatives. However, one critical element is missing from the initiatives above and that is the City of Tulsa needs a Planning Director. This critical position has been vacant for more than two years. This should be initiative #1 and be the first undertaken. This person needs to be creative, energetic and tough because the six initiatives above will require considerable grit to complete. I encourage each of you to contact your councilor and advocate for this Planning Director position being filled immediately. The Mayor and some councilors were quoted in the paper this morning on their intent to fill this position. One councilor added a qualification that it would occur after the police and fire departments were staffed to "optimum levels". I understand monies were available for this director position, but were used for other purposes. While I am sure these other needs and the "optimum level" goal are important, the Planning Director is a major departmental position and I believe much more important. A top quality Planning Director, implementing the above initiatives so that our city can become more efficient in its' need for resources like police, fire and other city services is so important and needed now.

I love this city and look forward to the implementation of the Strategic Vision for our City.

Self Appointed Public Characters

Every summer usually at vacation time, I pick out a book to read that I have not read in a while. This summer it is Jane Jacobs, "The Death and Life of Great American Cities". I first read this book in college, probably required reading, and it is probably one of the primary reasons for my interest in the urban environment. I remember using it as a reference in the urban studies program at the University of Tulsa. Now it has been over 25 years since it's pages revealed the wonderful, vibrate and diverse world often centered around her neighborhood, people and places such as Joe Cornaccia's deli, Mr Lacey's locksmith shop, and as she describes (paraphased)- the lives of other self-appointed public characters that oversee the social structure of the neighborhood sidewalks. An environment mostly set in New York City, with bits and pieces from Boston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Chicago and other cities across America. My copy of this book is a paperback copy and while the cover is only a bit worn, the interior pages are a light beige with a musty smell, an effect that takes over books of this age. During this summers reading, Part One of the book has completely come loose from the binding and I suspect as I proceed through the subsequent chapters more pages will lose their connection. My copy cost $4.95.

As Tulsa completes the Comprehensive Plan and adopts the Downtown Master Plan, the chapter on "The need for mixed primary uses" caught my attention. Jane Jacobs writes,

"I have been dwelling on downtowns for two reasons in particular. First, insufficient primary mixture is typically the principal fault in our downtowns, and often the only disastrous basic fault. Most big-city downtowns fulfill-or in the past did fulfill-all four of the necessary conditions for generating diversity. This is why they were able to become downtowns. Today, typically, they still do fulfill three of the conditions. But they have become...too predominately devoted to work and contain too few people after working hours. This condition has been more or less formalized in planning jargon, which no longer speaks of "downtowns" but instead of "CBD's - standing for Central Business district." 

I think this describes our downtown quite well, as we have certainly codified it with the zoning classification of "CBD". Yet, I am very glad that we continue to call the plan, The Downtown Master Plan and I think we are rapidly recovering our downtown. Finally, I will end with the next paragraph Jane Jacobs writes

"The second reason for emphasizing primary mixtures downtown is the direct effect on other parts of cities. Probably everyone is aware of certain general dependencies by a city on its heart. When a city heart stagnates or disintegrates, a city as a social neighborhood of the whole begins to suffer: People who ought to get together, by means of central activities that are failing, fail to get together. Ideas and money that ought to meet, and do so often on by happenstance in a place of central vitality, fail to meet. The networks of city public life develop gaps they cannot afford. Without a strong and inclusive central heart, a city tends to become a collection of interests isolated form one another. It falters at producing something greater, socially, culturally and economically, that the sum of its separated parts."

I love this city and think we all should become - self-appointed public characters that oversee the social, cultural, economic and physical structure of our neighborhood sidewalks.

Urban Inquiry Blog #1

How easy is this.
I am an architect and planner in middle of the United States. This will be a very big generalization, but everything I read in these areas, seem to, originate from, are about, focus on or in someway are connected to things that happen either on the east or west coast or in larger cities. So it is my hope to begin a discussion on the architecture and urban planning occurring here in the small to mid-size cities of the U.S..
So if you have thoughts, pictures, experiences or whatever related to architecture, urban planning, urban policy, cities, infrastructure, environmentally beneficial practices or products, or related topics, please join in, I would love to hear from you.

Reflection. This is what Daniel Pink said us Boomers do when we hit 60, so bear with me.
This past April as the 40th anniversary of Earth Day occurred, (I was a sophomore in college that day in 1970) I asked myself what has happened since then and why are we not further off our dependence on oil and causing damage to our environment. Rhetorical question of course, but what was it. Cheap energy, cheap land, particularly here in the middle of the U.S.. Was it doing whatever necessary to earn a living, raise a family and attempt to put something away for the future. I know some of us continued to practice our profession in an environmentally sound manner, or certainly tried to do so.

What's different now. Does it take a generation for movements like this to take hold. There really is not much core content, practices or technology in the LEED program of USGBC that we didn't learn in architecture school. But the momentum seems to be much larger. And it is that momentum that I hope keeps building and is also the thing that concerns me the most. It's like after the oil embargo in the 70's,  President Carter put solar panels on the White House and then President Reagan took them off. I read recently that venture capital for wind turbine development and entrepreneur's has diminished considerably due to lack of movement on a climate bill. The momentum and financial support for environmentally beneficial technologies must continue.

Well time to end. Would appreciate your thoughts.